Coronado Brewing Co.
Coronado, CA
Available: CA, AZ, NM, WI, CT, PA, VA, DC, NC, SC
Idiot IPA is an all-natural India pale ale, brewed with over three pounds of hops per barrel. This unfiltered “San Diego IPA” has been “known to reduce even the most intelligent to a blithering idiot.”
ABV: 8.5
ABW: 6.8
Color: amber
Bitterness: 85
Original gravity: 1076
Finally, a name that resonates, and an aroma that resinates. Bright citrus and zest comes rising out of the foam; it’s hopzapoppin! The translucent reddish gold turns into sunshine in my mouth: sweet malt crashes with waves of ruby grapefruit flesh, embittered by a hard-driven spindrift of pith. It’s a bit on the heavy side, but that’s helpfully cautionary in a beer this big. I’m looking for a mammoth chunk of rare red meat to launch on this San Diegan tide of hops.
Every time I think I’m suffering from hoppy beer overload, along comes an ale like this to lure me back into the lupulin fold. Bright, rich gold in color, this big beer has a most engaging nose of dried apricot, floral hop, fresh spruce and alfalfa, which foretells of the massive fruity-hoppy body to come. There’s plenty of hoppiness here, for certain, but it’s assertive rather than aggressive and balanced nicely by sweet, fresh apricot and canned peach notes. The finish is definitely not for the bitter-phobic, but again, it seems more intent on making a statement than hammering the drinker over the head. A most intelligent beer.
Lew Bryson writes about beer and whiskey from his home in southeast Pennsylvania. He has a family and two dogs. That's all you need to know.
Once described as “beerdom's Brillat-Savarin,” Stephen Beaumont is the author of five books and countless articles on beer, spirits, food, travel, and how it all goes together.
